(no subject)
I just finished this week’s Japanese homework. This was the last katakana practice week, and the homework was to choose any 15 words from this menu and write them down (by hand) and their meaning. It wasn’t too hard to read the words (but I thoroughly dislike shi and tsu, because they still look identical to me unless I see them side by side, and even then I might not be able to remember which is which), but I had trouble finding out the meaning of some of them. Most of them weren’t in the dictionary, so I googled for pictures and used Wikipedia. :)
One of the more interesting things I found was ホットファッジ. It was easy to realize that it means ”hot fudge”, however, when I looked at the picture (of a yummy-looking sundae), I still didn’t know how to write it on my piece of paper… I wrote the translations in Swedish, and the thing is, the word “kola” might refer both to what you call fudge, and to toffee.
“Toffee” is not used in Swedish, but “fudge” can be called “mjuk kola” (mjuk = soft) or just “fudge”, there is no special Swedish word for it. But there would be no such thing as “het fudge” (het = hot) on a Swedish menu, so I scratched my head and wondered if “kolasås” (toffee sauce) would be a correct translation. Something made me doubt it (perhaps the picture) so I looked it up and eventually came to the conclusion that “hot fudge” is actually “a thick, chocolate-flavored syrup” according to Wikipedia - so I wrote “chokladsås” even though it sort of looks wrong to translate “hot fudge” as “chocolate sauce” (which is what the picture looks like).
So, chances are that if you come to Sweden and order hot fudge to your ice-cream, you’re going to get “toffee sauce”, because the waitress thinks like I did, that fudge is a different, softer kind of toffee. ;) If you order “chocolate sauce”, you’ll get your “fudge”, although if it’s hot or not depends on the restaurant, I guess. Unless, of course, your waitress knows how to correctly translate everything on the menu to English! And I suppose that’s a scenario that is just as likely! Lots of people know more about English than I do. I just think it’s very fascinating, the way the appearance of words can be deceiving and “literal” translations can be misleading.
Yesterday, in need of distraction, I finished watching Aoi Hana. I really liked it, because most of the time, the characters and their interactions and reactions felt real and believable to me. (I also loved the animation, soft and beautiful.) I don’t have anything to compare it with yet, but the sad thing is that if I can believe the reviews on My Anime List, this is as good as it gets as far as yuri goes. Well, I’ll try some other series one of these days.
I was sad, though, that it was only 11 episodes… So I found the manga, because I didn’t want to let go of these girls just yet! I read most of it last night. One reason why I don’t really like to read manga is because it feels like everything happens too fast and I go through it too quickly. I don’t know if this makes sense; it should be the other way around since I can take my time and don’t turn the page too quickly, but I just never do… I still appreciated reading Aoi Hana because I already liked the story.
Before I went to bed, I clicked one of those links at the bottom of the page, “people who read this also read…” or whatever. The story already, but it left me feeling kind of… “huh? okay…” I don’t know; I didn’t dislike the story, it just felt like it was… pointless, I guess. (But not pointless… it does have a point. But kind of like eating a cookie from a cheap brand, instead of home-baked one?)
The main character, Hiromi, is a young tomboy who dreams about becoming a prince. Then one day, a new girl arrives, and she is breathtakingly beautiful. All the other girls are curious about her, but she doesn’t care about being admired or about belonging to any group. She only wants Hiromi to like her, and she renames the two of them Romeo and Juliet (her name is Juri). Well, so far so good, but Hiromi is confused because she doesn’t know how to handle her affection and attraction and it makes her embarrassed that Juri is so touchy-feely. (I can agree, though, that despite her charm and beauty, she’s a somewhat clumsy seductress. “How big are your boobs? Let me feel them!” *rolls eyes* I mean, I know that this is what manga-girls like Juri are expected to say [does not happen in Aoi Hana, by the way…] but I guess I just had to see it with my own eyes to believe it…)
Anyway, soon, they’re acting Romeo and Juliet on stage. Juri kisses her “prince” so passionately that Hiromi is shocked, she pushes her away and runs home. She doesn’t do this because she dislikes being kissed, but because she’s overwhelmed by the intensity of her feelings and she doesn’t know how to react. While she hides in her home for a week, Juri stays in school where the other girls call her a “disgusting lesbian”.
The “funny” thing is that many of the other girls act like they, too, have a crush on Hiromi, who is such a handsome Romeo. They always want to be with her, they give her gifts, they like her because she’s boyish and they even seem to like her more than they like the “real” boys. But Juri crosses a line when she expresses her feelings so openly and so physically. It’s like it’s fine for Hiromi to pretend to be a “prince” because it’s some kind of role play that is acceptable because it’s not real. But Juri is obviously not playing, and that’s when it’s not okay anymore.
(Actually, there’s a similar theme in Aoi Hana. One of the girls is much admired because she’s tall, handsome, a basketball star who is also good at acting, and she is stunning as Heathcliff in the school play. She has a whole fanclub of girls who are swooning if she as much as looks their way. At least two girls are genuinely in love with her, but who knows, for the rest she might just be a sort of substitute boy? Aoi Hana is nothing like for example Gakuen Heaven where it seems likely that all the characters are completely gay! Anyway, this -- fangirling over a girl because she’s almost like a boy except she’s not -- is a behaviour that I don’t recognize from real life.)
Anyway, luckily for Juri, Hiromi realizes that she can’t leave her (girl)friend alone in this. Soon, though, they are separated because Juri’s family moves away, and they loose touch. Four years later (by the way, it was only then that I realized how young they really were!), they meet again, and I suppose they live happily ever after…
That’s when I thought: Okay, good for them… why did I read this again? *lol* But still… it’s sort of fascinating anyway that this kind of stories exist. I wonder if something in my life had been different if there had been lesbian-themed fiction within my reach when I was a teenager.
One of the more interesting things I found was ホットファッジ. It was easy to realize that it means ”hot fudge”, however, when I looked at the picture (of a yummy-looking sundae), I still didn’t know how to write it on my piece of paper… I wrote the translations in Swedish, and the thing is, the word “kola” might refer both to what you call fudge, and to toffee.
“Toffee” is not used in Swedish, but “fudge” can be called “mjuk kola” (mjuk = soft) or just “fudge”, there is no special Swedish word for it. But there would be no such thing as “het fudge” (het = hot) on a Swedish menu, so I scratched my head and wondered if “kolasås” (toffee sauce) would be a correct translation. Something made me doubt it (perhaps the picture) so I looked it up and eventually came to the conclusion that “hot fudge” is actually “a thick, chocolate-flavored syrup” according to Wikipedia - so I wrote “chokladsås” even though it sort of looks wrong to translate “hot fudge” as “chocolate sauce” (which is what the picture looks like).
So, chances are that if you come to Sweden and order hot fudge to your ice-cream, you’re going to get “toffee sauce”, because the waitress thinks like I did, that fudge is a different, softer kind of toffee. ;) If you order “chocolate sauce”, you’ll get your “fudge”, although if it’s hot or not depends on the restaurant, I guess. Unless, of course, your waitress knows how to correctly translate everything on the menu to English! And I suppose that’s a scenario that is just as likely! Lots of people know more about English than I do. I just think it’s very fascinating, the way the appearance of words can be deceiving and “literal” translations can be misleading.
Yesterday, in need of distraction, I finished watching Aoi Hana. I really liked it, because most of the time, the characters and their interactions and reactions felt real and believable to me. (I also loved the animation, soft and beautiful.) I don’t have anything to compare it with yet, but the sad thing is that if I can believe the reviews on My Anime List, this is as good as it gets as far as yuri goes. Well, I’ll try some other series one of these days.
I was sad, though, that it was only 11 episodes… So I found the manga, because I didn’t want to let go of these girls just yet! I read most of it last night. One reason why I don’t really like to read manga is because it feels like everything happens too fast and I go through it too quickly. I don’t know if this makes sense; it should be the other way around since I can take my time and don’t turn the page too quickly, but I just never do… I still appreciated reading Aoi Hana because I already liked the story.
Before I went to bed, I clicked one of those links at the bottom of the page, “people who read this also read…” or whatever. The story already, but it left me feeling kind of… “huh? okay…” I don’t know; I didn’t dislike the story, it just felt like it was… pointless, I guess. (But not pointless… it does have a point. But kind of like eating a cookie from a cheap brand, instead of home-baked one?)
The main character, Hiromi, is a young tomboy who dreams about becoming a prince. Then one day, a new girl arrives, and she is breathtakingly beautiful. All the other girls are curious about her, but she doesn’t care about being admired or about belonging to any group. She only wants Hiromi to like her, and she renames the two of them Romeo and Juliet (her name is Juri). Well, so far so good, but Hiromi is confused because she doesn’t know how to handle her affection and attraction and it makes her embarrassed that Juri is so touchy-feely. (I can agree, though, that despite her charm and beauty, she’s a somewhat clumsy seductress. “How big are your boobs? Let me feel them!” *rolls eyes* I mean, I know that this is what manga-girls like Juri are expected to say [does not happen in Aoi Hana, by the way…] but I guess I just had to see it with my own eyes to believe it…)
Anyway, soon, they’re acting Romeo and Juliet on stage. Juri kisses her “prince” so passionately that Hiromi is shocked, she pushes her away and runs home. She doesn’t do this because she dislikes being kissed, but because she’s overwhelmed by the intensity of her feelings and she doesn’t know how to react. While she hides in her home for a week, Juri stays in school where the other girls call her a “disgusting lesbian”.
The “funny” thing is that many of the other girls act like they, too, have a crush on Hiromi, who is such a handsome Romeo. They always want to be with her, they give her gifts, they like her because she’s boyish and they even seem to like her more than they like the “real” boys. But Juri crosses a line when she expresses her feelings so openly and so physically. It’s like it’s fine for Hiromi to pretend to be a “prince” because it’s some kind of role play that is acceptable because it’s not real. But Juri is obviously not playing, and that’s when it’s not okay anymore.
(Actually, there’s a similar theme in Aoi Hana. One of the girls is much admired because she’s tall, handsome, a basketball star who is also good at acting, and she is stunning as Heathcliff in the school play. She has a whole fanclub of girls who are swooning if she as much as looks their way. At least two girls are genuinely in love with her, but who knows, for the rest she might just be a sort of substitute boy? Aoi Hana is nothing like for example Gakuen Heaven where it seems likely that all the characters are completely gay! Anyway, this -- fangirling over a girl because she’s almost like a boy except she’s not -- is a behaviour that I don’t recognize from real life.)
Anyway, luckily for Juri, Hiromi realizes that she can’t leave her (girl)friend alone in this. Soon, though, they are separated because Juri’s family moves away, and they loose touch. Four years later (by the way, it was only then that I realized how young they really were!), they meet again, and I suppose they live happily ever after…
That’s when I thought: Okay, good for them… why did I read this again? *lol* But still… it’s sort of fascinating anyway that this kind of stories exist. I wonder if something in my life had been different if there had been lesbian-themed fiction within my reach when I was a teenager.